TORONTO — Brendan Shanahan has heard the talk. He knows what it being said. There is a feeling out there that the Toronto Maple Leafs, who collapsed in historic fashion at the end of last season, did nothing to improve a team that finished with the eighth-worst record in the NHL.

In fact, after making minimal moves in free agency, they might actually be worse.

It’s an opinion that the new president of the Leafs does not share. Yes, the team did not land one of the big fishes on July 1st. They lost out on Dan Boyle and couldn’t convince Josh Gorges to accept a trade to Toronto. They failed to re-sign Dave Bolland and will be without Mason Raymond and Nikolai Kulemin. The moves they made — bringing back Matt Frattin and Leo Komarov, signing defenceman Stephane Robidas, KHL veteran Petri Kontiola and fourth-line centre Mike Santorelli — amount to shuffling the deck chairs around.

None of the players acquired are considered top-six forwards or top-two defencemen.

So does Shanahan believe the Leafs have done enough to challenge for a playoff spot? Or is this a sign that the team, which selected William Nylander with the eighth-overall pick in last month’s draft, is positioning itself for a potential lottery pick next year?

Well, as Shanahan said on Wednesday in his first appearance since the draft, when the Leafs traded Carl Gunnarsson to the St. Louis Blues for Roman Polak, that will be determined soon enough.

“I think no matter what you do at this time, it’s really still just talk,” he said at the team’s prospect camp. “It’s about getting the players out on the ice.”

The team, which according to capgeek.com has spent US$55.7-million on 17 players, still has to re-sign Jake Gardiner and will go to arbitration with backup goaltender James Reimer and defenceman Cody Franson. Shanahan also said some roster spots are being left open to create competition at training camp. But basically the team is done. The lineup today is what you will likely see when the season opens.

And, according to Shanahan, it’s not a result of swinging and missing — despite the fact that the team was hoping that Bolland would return and Gorges would ride shotgun alongside Dion Phaneuf.

“To be honest, I was actually really pleased with [general manager] Dave Nonis,” said Shanahan. “I think there was a perception out there that was incorrect about July 1st for us. I thought we were strategic. I thought we had a plan. We targeted certain individuals. We go almost all of them. I think that we were interested in obviously trying to sign David Bolland, but only at a certain price. He chose to go elsewhere and that’s fine. We were disciplined with the money we had and didn’t throw it away.

“June 30th, [head coach] Randy Carlyle and I were having dinner with Stephane Robidas and Dave Nonis was flying back from having dinner with Leo [Komarov] in Finland. So these were not Plan Bs. These were guys we targeted.”

Maybe the Leafs did not need to make a huge splash. Maybe all they needed was a few minor changes to make the puzzle fit better. That’s the hope, at least, from management.

The Leafs have a goaltender in Jonathan Bernier that they believe is among the NHL’s elite and their top line of Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak was one of the most productive in the NHL. If Nazem Kadri can build on a 50-point season and Joffrey Lupul can rebound from a 44-point season and David Clarkson, who scored five goals and 11 points, can get closer to the 30-goal player he was in 2011-12, the Leafs might have a decent second line. On defence, it is not unrealistic to assume that Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly still have more to give. So maybe the team did not have to get a legitimate top-two defenceman.

The big question is how much of an impact can role players actually have?

According to one Leafs executive, the team brought back Komarov and Frattin and targeted Robidas and Santorelli more so because of their character than their skill level. “These guys are worker bees,” said the executive. “They will push guys in practice and push the level of compete. We missed that last season.”

In the end, the Leafs played it safe. A year after breaking the bank and giving Clarkson a seven-year deal worth US$36.75-million, Shanahan did not want to make a mistake that he would regret.

“With all due respect to the players that were signed for big dollars, we looked at July 1 this year and decided we didn’t want to be too involved with those big signings. It was not our plan to be going after some of those guys,” said Shanahan. “We identified some needs. We also know that rosters don’t have to be set on July 1st. Like I had said, it’s a bad habit to try to build your team on July 1st year after year.